Reading the Future
by Rumour of an Alchemist
Summary: It's mid-October, 1981, and Alastor Moody has been assigned the task of interviewing Lily Potter about events leading up to a recent domestic incident. A set of seven books whose titles feature her son's name seem to have been involved... One-shot. Parody of 'Harry Potter characters reading the Rowling books' genre. Tragedy. Let me repeat, Tragedy.


Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following piece of work is identified as 'parody' (since to some extent it is sending up the 'characters in Harry Potter get the Harry Potter books to read!' genre of fanfiction) and as 'tragedy' since sad things happen. I have rated it 'M', to be on the safe side, since some readers might find it harrowing. It is a one-shot story set in a universe where in mid October, 1981, Alastor Moody has had to 'invite Lily Potter down to the station' (or whatever the auror equivalent of this procedure is) 'to answer some questions'.

* * *

Alastor Moody had been personally requested by Albus Dumbledore to handle this case. On the surface, it seemed a simple case of a marital row which had escalated and gone badly wrong, but there were considerably complicating factors involved – such as the series of seven books, all with the same author and all with titles which featured the name 'Harry Potter'.

"So why don't we start with where these came from?" the grizzled auror picked up one of the books from the table again and glanced at it.

"They arrived on the summer solstice." Lily Potter sniffed. This discussion was taking place of one of the auror department's relatively comfortably furnished 'interview rooms' rather than one of the interrogation cells. Alastor's colleague Alice Longbottom was currently looking after Lily's son, Harry. "James dismissed them almost at once as a prank by one of his friends, but I was bored out of my mind sitting there in a house protected by fidelius charm all day with nothing to do but cook and change nappies, and so I started to read them."

"By 'arrived' you mean?" Alastor pressed.

"They just showed up on the doorstep somewhere round about sunrise in a brown paper package, tied up with string. With a label on 'from the future'." Lily said. "There was a sharp crack, like someone apparating, which woke us up, and when I used a version of the supersensory charm I'd tinkered with a bit to check, there was nobody there. Just this parcel."

"Right. No means of identifying the sender. No clues as to how the package arrived or got past the fidelius. You _were_ under fidelius at that time, correct?"

Lily nodded.

"We _did_ check the package for traps. Well _I_ did. James just wanted to rip the parcel open when he didn't know what it was, figuring it might be a surprise one of his friends left for Harry. He was tickled that the books all had Harry's name on the cover, but thought that they were a bit old for him as they didn't have any pictures in. They were probably too old for Harry as well. James quickly lost interest in them."

"But you started reading them, right?"

"As I said, I was bored. We had You-Know-Who after us and we were in hiding. Well we were _supposed_ to be in hiding, but that didn't stop James sneaking out occasionally, under his invisibility cloak, or at least not until Albus asked to borrow it a few days ago."

Alastor flicked rapidly through the book he'd picked up. At a quick glance it seemed to feature a disturbing number of names and magical locations familiar to him – if nothing else these books represented a potential major breach of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, if they were being distributed on a wider basis. Although unless the purported publisher counted years differently to wizards, the copyright date on the book _implied_ that it had been published at a date future to the current one.

He shuddered and put the book down. The ICW and Unspeakables would have to decide between them if there was a threat to the Statute of Secrecy here, and then try to figure out just _what_ to do to clean this mess up if it _did_ constitute a threat without creating a time paradox. At the very least he suspected a short spell in Azkaban or obliviation for whoever the purported author and publishers were was on the cards…

"Right: so parcel purportedly from the future with books apparently about the future, with people we know mentioned, and you started to read them?" Alastor quizzed, getting back to current difficulties.

"Yes." Lily confirmed.

"Hmmmph." Alastor said. "So you and James presumably talked about them?"

"Well yes, and James even made a couple of belated attempts to read them, but said there was 'too much Snivellus in them' and gave up."

"Snivellus being?" Alastor pressed.

"Oh, that was my husband's nickname for Severus Snape. He never referred to him in public or in private as anything else."

The auror winced. He'd heard whispers and suggestions – especially of spells created or devised by Snape – and whether Snape was a Death Eater or not, he was certainly a target it was unwise for a civilian to taunt or deliberately provoke.

"Your husband certainly knew how to make bad enemies." Alastor commented. "So, there you were reading these books, and your husband wasn't, but you still talked about them?"

"That's right." Lily said. "Except it was increasingly less talked, and more often shouted. James… James thought the behaviour of the Harry in the books kept on getting funnier and funnier. He couldn't see why I had any problems with it, or why I was increasingly dismayed. Well except for the bit with Petunia and Vernon in. He agreed that it was _horrible_ the thought of our Harry ending up with them and being treated like that, but he didn't seem to think that the Harry in the book had turned out too bad at all. Despite the fact that the Harry in the books was turning into a horrible bully. At his first flying lesson, the Harry in the books threatens to kill another pupil and scares him badly. Later on he burns a man's face off and upon awaking in the infirmary after that experience doesn't say or ask anything about him at all. There's something _wrong_ with him. Losing his parents and being treated badly by Petunia and her husband is probably to blame for how he turns out, but it doesn't hide he's still a monster who puts on an angelic face when teachers are around. In the second book a couple of fellow pupils in his potions class are lucky he doesn't _kill_ them when he throws a firework into their potions cauldron, and in the third book he and his gang of friends turn on a teacher who's trying to protect them from a man the teacher believes to be an escaped murderer. Okay, that teacher _is_ Severus, but given that Severus for whatever reason did save his life from one of Voldemort's servants in the book about the first year, the Harry in the book _should_ give him more latitude in such a serious situation. James of course thought that that was a hysterically funny scene, punching the air and shouting 'go, Prongslet!' when I brought it up, and laughing even more at the notion that Peter Pettigrew might actually betray us."

"Wait: Peter Pettigrew has a counterpart in these books who turns traitor?" Alastor frowned.

"That convinced James that the books could be nothing but a big prank. The Peter in the books is our secret keeper but sells us out to You-Know-Who."

Lily was looking distinctly nervous about something.

"Right, but we all know that here in reality Sirius Black is your actual secret keeper, isn't he?" Alastor probed.

"That's what we've been telling people." Lily flinched. "I wanted the headmaster, of course, but James and his friends thought that they had a better idea."

Alastor was an expert at reading between the lines, and given Lily's evasiveness on the issue, he reckoned that the Potters _had_ made Peter Pettigrew their secret keeper for wherever it was they'd been hiding – not that that was of much immediate concern to anyone right now, given recent developments…

"So: The situation is that you're both in hiding with these books. James thinks the books aren't serious, you're not so sure. You don't like what you see in them, and you and your husband are arguing about them, but you _still_ keep reading them. Why?" Alastor pressed.

"I hoped that things would get better." Lily said. "Somehow."

Alastor sighed.

"All of which leads us to this afternoon, where you and James Potter have a 'domestic dispute' which apparently goes too far." Alastor said. "Need I ask what sparked it?"

"It all blew up. James mocking Severus and gloating about quidditch and cheering about Harry in the book almost killing other pupils, but James thinking it's brilliant anyway because 'they were slimy Slytherins'. I thought my husband had grown up. He had made _promises_ to me, when we started dating. It turned out it was all just a façade, and that he must have been laughing behind my back at how gullible I was all along. I couldn't take any more of it, and when he got Harry saying 'Eat sectumsempra, Draco!' I just snapped."

"Yes." said Alastor. "You literally hexed your husband's face right off."

There was an uneasy silence, broken at last by the auror. This whole damn thing was crazy, and Albus just wanted everything swept under the carpet as fast as possible. Trying to put this in front of the Wizengamot was going to be impossible without at least mentioning the books, and Alastor Moody could see Albus' point that it wouldn't do to even _hint_ that these things existed until the Unspeakables had finished going over them quite thoroughly and reported back. This one _was_ going to have to go away…

"There are clearly extenuating circumstances in this case – the muggles have some term called 'cabin fever' for people stuck in a small place for long amounts of time with not much to do – and I'm prepared to believe that there might have been some hex or jinx on the books which you might not have detected which adversely affected both your mental states. Albus Dumbledore has been leaning on me very heavily too. He wants you and Harry out of the country, somewhere safe, and forgotten about for the next ten years if that's at all possible. He also apparently wants to read these books for himself before I have to hand them on to the Unspeakables to investigate, although I'm not at all convinced that that would be wise given the circumstances. He's prepared to lend his name to a cover-up, putting about that a Death Eater killed James and you and Harry barely escaped. I don't know what he thinks he owes you, or what he might want from you in the future, but you're a lucky, lucky woman Mrs. Potter."

"I don't feel it." Lily said, tears trickling down her face.

* * *

Author Notes:

The James Potter in this particular version of the Harry Potter universe either never 'grew up' but put on a facade for Lily, or did mature for a time, but under the pressure of being in hiding with a powerful dark wizard hunting for him cracked and reverted to a more adolescent psyche. I think he _did_ sincerely care for this Lily. It's just that his juvenile behaviour and attitudes towards events in the Harry Potter books pushed her to breaking point. (She was under the same tremendous pressure of being in hiding from a powerful dark wizard too.) As a reminder, this story is identified as 'tragedy'.

The Lily Potter in this particular version of the Harry Potter universe is one who's horrified by some of the darker things which canon Harry gets up to. Yes, there are _good_ things which canon Harry does, but she doesn't notice them so much as the absolutely heart-wrenchingly _awful_ things (from her perspective) which she'd _never_ want to think of a child of her own doing. (Did I mention that she's under tremendous psychological and emotional pressure, being in hiding from a powerful dark wizard?)

This story is a one-shot.


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